COVID-19 Treatments
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New Frontiers in COVID-19 and Autoimmunity
Written by: Chumeng Wang Edited by: Esther Melamed Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and clinicians have sought to determine predispositions that may put individuals at higher risk for severe disease. As the virus spread and information became available about typical recovery times, more questions arose as some patients reported symptoms of Long COVID,…
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The Cautionary Tale of Ivermectin: Consequences of Flawed Research
Written by: Akshara Ramasamy Edited by: Esther Melamed The global desire for COVID-19 preventive and therapeutic treatment options has resulted in a demand for both randomized clinical studies and systematic analysis of such studies. However, this high demand for information has also led to data presentation/publications of varying quality via publication channels that may or may…
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ACTIV-4 Preliminary Results Demonstrate Efficacy of Blood Thinners in Severe COVID-19 Patients
Written by: Cole Maguire Edited by: Esther Melamed Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been recognized that a number of pressing secondary pathologies often develop in patients with severe COVID-19 disease. One of these secondary pathologies is COVID Associated Coagulopathy (CAC), which results in an over-abundance of clotting in the body and can…
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Despite a rocky start, AstraZeneca tosses its hat into the COVID vaccine ring
Written by: Parker Davis Edited by: Esther Melamed In addition to Pfizer/BioNTech announcing their vaccine as being up to 95% effective in Phase 3 trials, Moderna and the University of Oxford partnered with AstraZeneca have added their names to the list of published vaccine efficacy data. Astonishingly, Moderna has reported in a news update that…
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Pfizer and BioNTech Vaccine Efficacy, Remdesivir officially FDA approved, and Bamlanivimab gains EUA
Over the previous month, there have been many exciting advances in the arena of COVID-19 clinical trials. To start, recently Pfizer and BioNTech announced 90% efficacy (at 7 days post the second dose) in their BNT162b2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidate. It is important to remember that these patients are not having their SARS-CoV-2 antibodies titers…
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WHO SOLIDARITY Trial Findings, Tocilizumab in COVID-19, and New NIH COVID-19 Clinical Trials
The first clinical trial update for this week is the recent publication on Tocilizumab in COVID-19 (Stone JH, et al. 2020). Tocilizumab is an anti-IL-6 receptor monoclonal antibody (mAb) that was being tested as a potential treatment for COVID-19 associated IL-6 cytokine storm. The study demonstrated no efficacy of Tocilizumab in reducing intubation or death…
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NIH’s new trial, New Remdesivir and Baricitinib Results, and Vaccine Testing in Older Adults
Over the past weeks there have been several exciting updates in COVID-19 clinical trials. The first are some results released from the ACTT-2 trial, which is evaluating combined Remdesivir with Barcitinib (a JAK inhibitor). This trial, in collaboration with Eli Lily, reported beneficial outcomes of the combined therapy in reducing COVID-19mortality by 35% (by Day…
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mRNA-1273 Induced Robust Immune Responses in a Small Cohort of Older Adults
Summary: Results of a phase 1 trial have revealed that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the US-based biotechnology company Moderna elicited a strong immune response in older adults with no serious adverse effects. Last week, Moderna released the results of the expansion of their phase 1 trial of mRNA-1273, one of the more prominent COVID…
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Pfizer’s new antiviral, the fourth phase III trial for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine begins, and NIH expansion of convalescent plasma trials for COVID-19
There have been many advances in clinical trials over the past two weeks. The first large announcement is Pfizer’s antiviral, PF-07304814, is entering phase I trials (NCT04535167). This antiviral was originally developed in the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak, but was ended prematurely in trials due to a lack of demand. However, Pfizer has reported in a pre-print…